Turner's £168m anti-nuclear quest

Turner: Nuclear threat "more complex and dangerous"

Media mogul Ted Turner has launched a new campaign to eradicate nuclear arms from the planet.

Mr Turner, who founded worldwide news network CNN and is now vice-chairman of media conglomerate Time Warner, has pledged $250m (£168m) over five years to support his Nuclear Threat Initiative.

His co-chairman will be former US senator Sam Nunn, who was tipped to be part of President-elect George W Bush's cabinet until he said he said he was not interested in returning to government.

We thought that when the Cold War ended, we no longer had to worry about nuclear annihilation

Ted Turner

"We should not miss this opportunity to make the world a safer place for all of us," Mr Turner told a press conference.

Also part of the group are former US defence secretary William Perry, Republican senators Pete Domenici and Richard Lugar, Russian politician Andrei Kokoshin and Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekei, who led the United Nations' special commission on Iraq from 1991 to 1997.

Mr Turner said: "Like everyone else, we thought that when the Cold War ended, we no longer had to worry about nuclear annihilation.

"The progress that we made to reduce that threat in the last 10 years has been marginal at best, despite the fact that we are no longer enemies with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

"In many ways, the threat has become more complex and dangerous."

Other donations

The organisation plans to encourage private sector funding for efforts to curb weapons of mass destruction.

Although it intends to concentrate on nuclear weapons, it also plans to address the issue of biological and chemical weapons.

A possible project would be to provide money for companies wanting to hire Russian biological scientists for commercial work.

It is not the first time Mr Turner, 62, has become involved in international politics. In 1997 he established a foundation worth $1 billion (£672m) over 10 years to help United Nations health and education projects.

Last month he donated $34 million (£22.8m) to help cut US payments to the UN.